very first annual meeting of the grand council, held at Boston (which governor Kieft denominated the Delphos of this truly classic league), strong representations were made against the Nederlanders, for as much as that in their dealing with the Indians they carried on a traffic in guns, powther, and shott—a trade damnable and injurious to the colonists 10." Not but what certain of the Connecticut traders did likewise dabble a little in this "damnable traffic," but then they always sold the Indians such scurvy guns that they burst at the first discharge and consequently hurt no one but these pagan savages. The rise of this potent confederacy was a death blow to the glory of William the Testy, for from that day forward, it was remarked by many, he never held up his head, but appeared quite crest-fallen. His subsequent reign, therefore, affords but scanty food for the historic pen-we find the grand council continually augmenting in power, and threatening to overwhelm the mighty but defenceless province of Nieuw Nederlandts; while Wilhelmus Kieft kept constantly firing off his proclamations and protests like a shrewd sea captain firing off so many carronades and swivels, in order to break and disperse a water-spout-but, alas! they had no more effect than if they had been so many blank cartridges. The last document on record of this learned, philosophic, but unfortunate little man, is a long letter to the council of the Amphyctions; wherein, in the bitterness of his heart, he rails at the people of New-Haven, or Red Hills, for their uncourteous contempt of his protest levelled at them for squatting within the province of their high mightinesses. From this letter, which is a model of epistolary writing, abounding with pithy apophthegms and classic figures, my limits will barely allow me to extract the following recondite passage :-" Certainly when we heare the Inhabitants of New-Hartford complayninge of 10 Haz. Col. S. Papers. 11 Vide Haz. Col. State Papers. us, we seem to heare Esop's wolfe complayninge of the lamb, or the admonition of the younge man, who cryed out to his mother, chideing with her neighboures, 'Oh Mother, revile her, lest she first take up that practice against you.' But being taught by precedent passages, we received such an answer to our protest from the inhabitants of NewHaven as we expected: the Eagle always despiseth the Beetle-fly; yet notwithstanding we doe undauntedly continue on our purpose of pursuing our own right, by just arms and righteous means, and doe hope without scruple to execute the express commands of our superiours." To show that this last sentence was not a mere empty meInace, he concluded his letter by intrepidly protesting against the whole council, as a horde of squatters and interlopers; inasmuch as they held their meeting at NewHaven, or the Red Hills, which he claimed as being within the Province of the New-Netherlands. Thus end the authenticated chronicles of the reign of William the Testy; for henceforth, in the troubles, the perplexities, and the confusion of the times, he seems to have been totally overlooked, and to have slipped for ever through the fingers of scrupulous history. Indeed, for some cause or other which I cannot divine, there appears to have been a combination among historians to sink his very name into oblivion; in consequence of which they have one and all forborne even to speak of his exploits. This shows how important it is for great men to cultivate the favour of the learned, if they are ambitious of honour and renown. "Insult not the dervise," said a wise Caliph to his son, "lest thou offend thine historian;" and many a mighty man of the olden time, had he observed so obvious a maxim, might have escaped divers cruel wipes of the pen which have been drawn across his character. It has been a matter of deep concern to me, that such darkness and obscurity should hang over the latter days of the illustrious Kieft; for he was a mighty and great lit tle man, worthy of being utterly renowned, seeing that he was the first potentate that introduced into this land the art of fighting by proclamation, and defending a country by trumpeters and windmills; an economic and humane mode of warfare, since revived with great applause, and which promises, if it can ever be carried into full effect, to save great trouble and treasure, and spare infinitely more bloodshed than either the discovery of gunpowder or the invention of torpedoes. It is true that certain of the early provincial poets, of whom there were great numbers in the Nieuw Nederlandts, taking the advantage of the mysterious exit of William the Testy, have fabled that, like Romulus, he was translated to the skies, and forms a very fiery little star, somewhere on the left claw of the Crab; while others equally fanciful declare that he had experienced a fate similar to that of the good King Arthur; who, we are assured by ancient bards, was carried away to the delicious abodes of fairy land, where he still exists, in pristine worth and vigour, and will one day or another return to rescue poor old England from the hands of paltry, flippant, pettifogging cabinets, and restore the gallantry, the honour, and the immaculate probity which prevailed in the glorious days of the Round Table 12. All these, however, are but pleasing fantasies, the cobweb visions of those dreaming varlets, the poets, to which I would not have my judicious reader attach any credibility. Neither am I disposed to yield any credit to the 12 The old Welsh bards believed that King Arthur was not dead, but carried awaie by the faries into some pleasent place, where he shold remaine for a time, and then returne againe and reigne in as great authority as ever.-HOLLINGSHED. The Britons suppose that he shall come yet and conquere all Britaigne, for certes this is the prophicye of Merlyn. He say'd that his deth shall be doubteous; and said soth, for men thereof yet have doubte and shullen for ever more-for men wyt not whether that he lyveth or is dede.-DE I EEW CHRON. assertion of an ancient and rather apocryphal historian, who alleges that the ingenious Wilhelmus was annihilated by the blowing down of one of his windmills; nor to that of a writer of later times, who affirms that he fell a victim to a philosophical experiment, which he had for many years been vainly striving to accomplish; having the misfortune to break his neck from the garret window of the Stadthouse, in an ineffectual attempt to catch swallows, by sprinkling fresh salt upon their tails. The most probable account, and to which I am inclined to give my implicit faith, is contained in a very obscure tradition, which declares, that what with the constant troubles on his frontiers, the incessant schemings and projects going on in his own pericranium-the memorials, petitions, remonstrances, and sage pieces of advice from divers respectable meetings of the sovereign people, together with the refractory disposition of his council, who were sure to differ from him on every point, and uniformly to be in the wrong: all these, I say, did eternally operate to keep his mind in a kind of furnace heat, until he at length became as completely burnt out as a Dutch family pipe which has passed through three generations of hard smokers. In this manner did the choleric but magnanimous William the Testy undergo a kind of animal combustion, consuming away like a farthing rush-light; so that when grim death finally snuffed him out, there was scarce left enough of him to bury! END OF BOOK FOURTH. BOOK FIFTH. CONTAINING THE FIRST PART OF THE REIGN OF PETER STUYVESANT, AND HIS TROUBLES WITH THE AMPHYCTIONIC COUNCIL. CHAP. I. In which the Death of a great Man is shown to be no very inconsolable Matter of Sorrow; and how Peter Stuyvesant acquired a great Name from the uncommon Strength of his Head. To a profound philosopher, like myself, who am apt to see clear through a subject, where the penetration of ordinary people extends but half way, there is no fact more simple and manifest than that the death of a great man is a matter of very little importance. Much as we may think of ourselves, and much as we may excite the empty plaudits of the million, it is certain that the greatest among us do actually fill but an exceeding small space in the world; and it is equally certain, that even that small space is quickly supplied when we leave it vacant. "Of what consequence is it," said the elegant Pliny, "that individuals appear, or make their exit ?—the world is a theatre whose scenes and actors are continually changing." Never did philosopher speak more correctly, and I only wonder, that so wise a remark could have existed so many ages, and mankind not have laid it more to heart. Sage follows on in the footsteps of sage; one hero just steps out of his triumphal car, to make way for the hero who comes after him; and of the proudest monarch it is merely said, |